This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, Royal Navy, and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the road of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.

Only 27 years old, Horatio Hornblower has distinguished himself as a capable and intrepid officer in the Royal Navy. On a reconnaissance mission with the Hotspur, a three-masted frigate under his command, Hornblower and his crew narrowly avoid capture by their French adversaries, but the danger is not over. In the meantime, misgivings about his recent marriage also weigh heavily on the young officer's mind.

Her Majesty's ship Sutherland is a humdrum ship of the line. But in command is none other than the heroic Captain Hornblower and, with his crew from the Lydia, he looks set to take on commando raids, hurricanes at sea, and Napoleons's gun batteries.

Hornblower becomes a national hero when he escapes a French firing squad. But the 'Terror of the Mediterranean' becomes Europe's most wanted man, forced to fight alone for England - and liberty.

Horatio Hornblower sails South American waters and comes face to face with a mad revolutionary in a novel that ripples with risk and gripping adventure. Throughout his escapades, Forester's hero remains resourceful and courageous.